Lizzie Borden Society Forum

I just thought of something. I was reading part of the Preliminary Hearing the other day, and Mrs. Bowen said that Lizzie needed fanning. She said that Lizzie pointed or told the ladies where to get the fan.

If Lizzie had a fan, they didn't have electricity. What kind of fan was it?

I've read testimony about this several times before, and I automatically thought it was one of those round fans with three blades.

In that time frame, some people had electricity in the form of like an electric socket (the one I saw was hooked to an overhead chandelier), and you could plug in some of those crazy electric contraptions they sold back then. Could the Bordens have had that? It wouldn't have given them electric lighting. I don't know if it lit the chandelier up or not. I'm presuming it did. But it was just an outlet and you took things to it to plug in.

I think she meant just a plain handheld fan- like the one she is shown holding in the New Bedford courthouse. Fans in summer were plentiful as flyswatters!, - from the round accordian-pleated style, the the folding fan, to the paper advertisement fans, fancy feather ones, black silk mourning ones, palmetto fans-all kinds . No electricity needed- just handpower.

Wasn't there something somewhere about getting a fan from the buffet in the dining room?

Or is it just where they keep one in the house now? My memory is getting so terrible.

I just seem to recall a hand fan kept on or in the buffet or china cabinet in the dining room...

Thanks, Shelley. I didn't realize there were so many different kinds of hand-held fans.

Addie Churchill:
" I fanned her with a newspaper in the kitchen after Miss Russell came."
(Trial 365+)

Alice Russell:
"Q. Where did she [Lizzie] sit down?
A. In the rocking chair about the middle of the kitchen I think.
Q. Was it while she was there that Mrs. Churchill was there fanning her, do you recollect about that?
A. I remember that we fanned her with a paper, I do not remember who fanned her; I remember we were both there fanning her, or doing something." (Prelim. ,293)

Phebe Bowen came to the house after these ladies had been there for awhile and she testified that when "somebody asked for a fan", Lizzie told Bridget to get the fan from the dining room closet. (Preliminary, p. 502+)

So your memory’s not that faulty, Tina-Kate.

Now I must hang a fan in the diningroom closet! Or it might have been on the narrow shelf at the top of the closet.